What's new about pornography? Certainly not its existence. Nor even that pornography is big business. Unscrupulous people have always made money by exploiting human weakness.

What's new is that today pornography has many cultured and prestigious advocates. Some merely say that you cannot prove that it does any harm. Others even affirm that pornography is good for people. Many suggest that to censor pornography would itself be immoral.

In this unique study. John Court investigates the arguments used to support pornography. He evaluates the scientific evidence concerning its effects, providing detailed references to support his conclusions. He offers an informed and practical Christian response to this urgent contemporary problem.

John Court is a clinical psychologist who after teaching at the University of Reading became Professor of Psychology at The Flinders University, Australia. The importance of his contribution to the pornography controversy was indirectly acknowledged in 1979 by the (British) Williams Report on Obscenity. This argued that the sale of pornography should be legalized and in doing so singled out Court's work for special and hostile-attention.

The Outreach and Identity monograph series addresses current theological issues of concern to the international Christian community. It is edited by Dr. Klaus Bockmuehl, professor of theology and ethics at Regent College, Vancouver. Sponsored by the World Evangelical Fellowship Theological Commission, this series is published in the United States by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois 60515, and in England by The Paternoster Press, 3 Mount Radford Crescent, Exeter, Devon EX2 4JW, England.